


Childhood enemies

by Smartnessx00



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Depression, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Tattoos, and a lot more
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 13:27:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15244389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smartnessx00/pseuds/Smartnessx00
Summary: The war to defeated Voldemort happened over 10 years ago and Harry left everything behind as soon as the war was over and moved to the states!  He needed to get away! Now for the last couple of years in his life he has made new friends, gotten a heap of tattoo's and changed his life drastically. But all of thsee changes has been to find himself, he was tired of being the boy who lived! But being a wizard living amount Muggles has given him no one to talk about the war with, and not talking about something leaves scars!In this life that he has created for himself a cretain blond man decides to walk into it and turn Harry's world upside down!





	Childhood enemies

**Author's Note:**

> So, this was something I wrote a while ago and now when I read it again I didn't actually hate it but rather I enjoyed reading it, so I decided to post it! 
> 
> Ps: Any character that you recognise the name of belong's to JK Rowling

Harry Potter the boy who lived, the young man that defeated Voldemort at the age of eighteen, he had disappeared! It wasn't even yesterday that he had left! No, immediately after the war had ended he had simply packed his stuff and left! The papers knew nothing. They had tried asking his closest friends but it turned out that they knew as little. The only thing Harry had told then before he left was that he needed to breath and find himself! The only way he could do that in his mind had been to just cut all the connections to the wizard world and his childhood friends and leave! It had now been 11 years since the end of the war and Harry's friends had started to realise that whatever kind of soul searching he had felt the need for had probably ended a long time and his answer to them all was that what he wasn't coming back! His friends had tried to contact him but they hadn't gotten any answer, he had been clear! He didn't want to see them anymore. And where had Harry Potter gone? What was he doing now? Well...  
At this exact moment Harry was standing in front of his full body mirror and taking in tonight's outfit! Things had changed a lot since he left his life behind eleven years ago! He was no longer the wizard he had been before! Hell, he was no longer even a wizard! He had moved and was no longer living in the wizard world, hell he had moved to the other side of the Atlantic ocean! He smiled as he saw how he was looking in the mirror! He had changed a lot since he lived in England! His unruly hair was cut in a messy style though one of the sides of his head were shaved short. It was still as dark as the ravens, the tips of his hair though was a dark shade of green. He pulled his hand through the messy hair that he had come to terms with over the years, he had learned how to style it so the mess looked good! He was wearing a black t-shirt that had a v-neck, probably a bit lover than needed, but that help with the effect he was going for! The shirt was tight and it made his lean body look really good! his arms, hands, neck and chest was covered in tattoos. He had gathered them over the years and he liked his collection! Probably the piece he liked the best was the tribal tattoo that started in the middle of his forehead and traveled down towards his jaw where it ended! It conveniently covered his scar and made it impossible for people to recognise him because of it! Besides from the tattoos he also had two piercings at either side below his lower lip. He had his ears pierced and the side of his nose. He might look really weird to people from his past, but he didn't care! This look made him happy! Just having a normal night out with a group of friends that knew nothing about the boy who lived and Voldemort! It was nice and relaxing! As Harry found himself content with the look he smiled. He might not have wanted the attention of a whole world with the responsibility to save the world when he was eleven years old! He still didn't want that! But now as he had lived for a long time outside of the wizard world he had realised that he actually wanted to turn someone's head, not the whole world or a huge crowd but just someone's head. He wasn't interested in the girls but he hoped that some guy would found him worthy enough to turn their head. He took his jacket and went out in to the evening! He was going to meet the rest of his friends at their favourite bar! He had decided to wall there because the evening air was so nice. It was a welcome change from the humid climate that haunted then during the day! It was early in the night so when he stepped into the bar he was met with some toned down music and people eating dinner and talking! He smiled as he saw Ellie from across the room! She was the receptionist at the tattoo place where Harry worked and she was an amazing friend! She had blood red hair that was shaved on the side and she had some tattoos and piercings as well, though unlike Harry she had no tattoos on her hands or face, and her collection was less extensive than Harry's.  
Ellie's face lit up as she locked eyes with Harry. Harry made his way over to woman and threw his arms around her in a bone crushing hug!  
"Hello there sweets! Long time no see" He joked as they had seen each other earlier that they at work.  
"Well hello, tall dark and mysterious!" She smiled back at him. It was a nickname he had gotten when they first got to know each other! He had been very short in his answers about anything remotely personal and well, he was tall. He had grown to about 1.86 and looked down on most people. And Sweets, it wasn't that hard to give her that nickname! She always had something sweet close by, it had been how she had been able to stop doing drugs and smoking! So both her and her friends thought it was a good compromise!  
"I seriously think you should stop, that is probably the stupidest of all my nicknames! It's even worse than slow and steady!" Harry groaned as he thought about it. Slow and steady came from the way he tattooed, but the rest of his friends kept mocking him and telling him that it was in fact a observations about how he handled himself in bed.  
"Well, you know what they say, slow and steady wins the race" Sweets winked at him with a mocking smile on her face that told Harry she was talking about something else! Harry sighed, these people gave you nicknames for anything, if he spilled his tea he was then called wet pants for a long time! Though some of the names were better and the ones they used on a regular basis they were kind of nice!  
"Seriously girl! Just stick with Cryo or I'm going to have to start a nickname war with you" Harry got a dangerous glint in his eye! He and Hawk had had a war that had gone on for a long time and it had been nasty, Harry had won and they had agreed to not rage war within the shop after this incident!  
"Amen to that" Came a male voice behind them and there stood both Hawk and Mitzi! Hawk's real name was Aron but because he had such a good eye when it came to details in his tattoo work they had all just started calling him Hawk instead! Mitzi was actually names Rachel, but she looked like the sweetest girl so Mitzi it was, though it was kind of misleading because she never backed down from a fight and she wasn't at all scared of getting dirty or breaking a nail in the process!  
"Yeah Sweets, you should know better than to argue with the English!" Mitzi added.  
"Seriously, I've lived here for eleven years! I don't even have an accent anymore, what will it take for you to accept me as an American" Harry sighed and wondered why he had such crazy friends!  
"It feels just like yesterday that we met and I will never forget it" Hawk remenissed. "It was probably the coldest fucking day in history and into our shop walks a clean slate without anything to keep his head warm no gloves and just a piece of cotton as a jacket! I thought you were nuts!" Hawk shakes his head and Harry rolled his eyes.  
"It was minus 2°C outside! I told you that when I left England it was minus 14°C and you are giving me less and less cloths each time you tell that story! Soon I will be naked!" It was how be had gotten his nickname though it was a good one, he liked it!  
"Okay okay, we all know by now that Cryo is nuts and need to be institutionalised so could we maybe order food?" Sweets asked!  
Harry snorted at the statement, even though he knew that they would put him in a mental hospital if they knew certain parts of Harry's past! Harry was really glad that he had managed to make such a good life for himself! He loved his friends and he wouldn't trade any of them for the world! Though in the deepest part of his mind he knew that he was missing something! The life he had was a lie, it was built on the fact that his friends didn't ask about his life before this! They had asked him when they first met, but he had told them he rather forget and they had accepted! It was clear that they all wondered but they respected him! That was great, but he knew that he should have kept in contact with someone from the wizarding world, if nothing else for the reason that he needed it! He needed to talk about all the things that had happened! He had died, he had been fine with being a human sacrifice for the greater good! He had a lot of scars from back then and he hadn't talked to anyone about it. There was no wonder that he had been depressed after the war had ended, maybe he should have handled his friends differently, but he hadn't been in a good enough place to do that! The self harm had gone on for a long time even before the war ended, he had just been "lucky" that none of his friends had realised! He shook his head and tried to take his thoughts back to the conversation his friends were having! He could mope around and think about the past when he was alone! Now he had friends here and they were clearly missing his input in the conversation, if the nuges from Hawk was anything to go on!  
"...Adopting a kid!" Harry came back to the conversation in time to hear Sweets make the announcement. She and her girlfriend had been talking about it for a long time, but seeing as they were a same sex couple it had been so much harder for them to be deemed fit to raise a child! Harry himself thought that all these laws were bullshit! But at least they were talking about it, in the wizarding world they all pretended like everybody were straight!  
"Congratulations!" Harry said and hugged his friend, he silently thank Hawk for bringing him back in time to hear this extremely important and life changing news!  
"Yeah! I'm really happy for you both! But I refuse to babysit! Babies and me are a no go!" Mitzi shook her head! Hawk hugged Ellie too and smiled.  
"I think both of you will be amazing parents, but If the little devil ruins something in the shop I don't care if it's your child! He or she will be banned for life" Aaron had a glint in his eyes that told the all that he was kidding, but only slightly. It was Aaron's tattoo shop and they all joked that the shop was Aaron's partner for life, because he would never love anyone as much as he loved his shop!  
"Well, there is still a long way to go before we have everything in order, but it's really exciting!" Ellie smiled big and they fell into their normal talk about what was new in life and there was a good amount of joking involved! They good their food and Harry couldn't even remember that he had ordered, but apparently he had. Time went by pretty fast and soon they realised that they would have to move on if they were going to get in to the bar without having to stand in line for a hundred years! Soon they were all inside at their favourite club and the music was on though they were a bit early, so the place wasn't packed yet! They all bought their own drinks and made their way over to an empty table! As soon as people started showing up and filling the place up they split up for a second seeing as most of them wanted to dance by Harry felt like he needed another drink or four before he wanted to dance! He was too sober at the moment.  
"Could I have a redbull and vodka please?" Harry shouted to the bartender! There was no question that the club had really opened now and Harry had to elbow his way to the counter! As soon as he got his drink he took it and fled!  
He went out back where there was a smoking area but also some chairs and tables where you could sit and talk without being completely death by the music. Harry had never really learned to appreciate the big crowds until he was a bit more drunk! It all reminded him of his youth and how everybody had always flocked around him because he was famous! Happy to be away from the crazy crowd inside he sank down on a chair that had a chusin on it to make it more comfortable. He closed his eyes and took a sip of his drink! The others would dance for a while and then they would come and join him! That was usually how a night out went! Then when he was more drunk he would join them on that dance floor! But before he was drunk he was not the best company in a crowded place like this! Harry was amazing at spacing out and he hadn't noticed the blond trying to speak with him, until the third time he spoke,  
"Excuse me? Hello? Earth to the dark haired guy with a lot of tattoos?" Harry snapped out of it and he looked up to stare into a pair of grey eyes and the owner of those eyes had blond hair to a company him! The blond was rather handsome and his faces looked mature and as if he had seen a lot, a face that seemed all too familiar. At the back if his head something told him that he had seen this guy before, but he couldn't place it, maybe he had seen him at the store or something! He did through smile up at the man in front of him!  
"Hello, it's nice to meet you! I'm sorry that I spaced out!" Harry looked apologetic.  
"It's no worries, I was just wondering if this seat was taken or if I could sit here?" The blond smiled up at him and it was a beautiful thing, this guy had a really nice smile!  
"By all means sit down! I was just escaping the crowds, I'm nowhere near drunk enough to be surrounded by a group of stumbling, sweaty, handsy people" Harry shuddered but his eyes were on the blond and he was intrigued, it wasn't that often that people came up and talked to him! The blond raised an eyebrow at him.  
"If you feel like that, how come you are even here to begin with?"  
"Well, if you give me some more of these," he waved his drink around "then I will find it a lot nicer and well, my friends are here too" Harry smiled this was his kind of socialising, one on one with decent company!  
"I guess that makes sense, and this is a good place to hide out! My name is Draco, what's yours?" The blond smiled at him and suddenly that nagging feeling in the back of his mind was slammed into the front of his mind and suddenly everything made sense! Suddenly he knew why the blond had seemed so familiar!  
"Draco, Draco Malfoy?" Harry said with big eyes and he couldn't believe it! He hadn't seen the git in over eleven years and now he was meeting him in a muggle bar! This was all too unbelievable!  
"...How do you know my name? I haven't used that last name in a long time..." it was clear that Draco seemed uneasy! 

 

Draco didn't like this one bit! How the heck did this man know who he was! He was pretty sure that it meant that this guy in front of him was a wizard! Because that was the only explanation to how the man knew his infamous last name! But he had thought that he was safe! He had thought that he had traveled far enough from the wizarding world and all those horrible memories that came with his name after and during the war! Out of all the people he would have guessed was a wizard, this guy with his tattoos and pierced face. Having tattoos like this wasn't normal in the wizarding world! He had never seen a wizard with this many tattoos! And Draco was sure that this person had lived in England during the war because even if news of the war had reached the rest of the world, details like his last name and how he looked was kept pretty much in England! Also, it was scary how the guy had seen to actually recognise him from just his looks and his first name! Draco hadn't been in England for the past eleven years! So how did this guy know him! He had never met this guy before in his life! Draco felt how pale he looked! He was having trouble breathing and he felt a panic attack coming on! He had just wanted a clam night out and maybe finding some nice guy to take home for the night! Now he was standing here and talking to a guy that could ruin him! That probably hated him and in his mind he was imagine all kind of horrible ways that this would end! Seeing as this was none of his friends from before than that meant this would indeed end badly! Draco tried and force an outside mask of clam so this guy wouldn't sense his weakness!  
"You gotta be kidding me, out of all the people I never thought I would see again?" The dark-haired stranger said and shook his head! "I mean it would probably be more likely if I met Ron or Hermione, not that they know where I am, but you! Meeting Draco Malfoy in a random muggle bar in a random city! That is just so unlikely!" The dark-haired stranger shook his head and Draco frowned! He was talking about the former Gryffindors as if he knew them, did that mean that he had been in school together with them? But that didn't explain who he was! Draco had never noticed this guy! Draco didn't like this! He felt vulnerable because this man knew his name! Maybe he even knew some of Draco's story! Or at least what the press had told the world! At the same time this stranger held the power to ruin Draco's night! Draco didn't want to remember and he also didn't want the world to know and he didn't want to meet anyone from the past to show up here in his sanctuary!  
"It's only polite to tell a person your own name when you got to know thiers" Draco spoke with a cold voice and his eyes were indifferent! Gone were the nice smiling guy from minutes before! He didn't like this situation and him retracting in behind his walls was his defence against whatever was coming next! He saw the dark-haired stranger look startled and confused at Draco's demand!  
"Are you saying that you really don't recognise me? Hm, I should have gotten all these tattoos and gone away a long time ago" the stranger shook his head, partly amused. Draco on the other hand wasn't amused at all! He was still uneasy and he waited for an answer from this guy, apparently he should know this guy, but he didn't look like anyone he could remember.  
"Well, I don't like asking twice" Draco said, his voice was still cold and he was wearing an expression that reminded you of Snape! The stranger grew quiet and Draco could see hesitation on the guys face! That kind of made Dravo even angrier! He knew who Dravo was, then Draco deserved to know who this guy was! At least his fucking name!  
"....Harry Potter..." Came the hesitant answer in a quiet tone from the stranger, or well, it had been a stranger! Draco just stared in chock! Was this actually Potter! No way! Potter did not look like this! He didn't have the guts to get tattoos like this! He was just a dogooder and he aimed to please as many as possible! Potter did not shy away from big groups! Draco shook his head!  
"No, you're pulling my legs! You can't be fucking Potter! Now tell me who you really are!" Draco shook his head! Where was this guy coming from trying to pretend he was Potter! The man in front of him sighed and slumped a bit in defeat. It was the exact expression he expected as a sign of a liar!  
"It's really me Draco... On your trail I stood up and told them that you were not your father and should not be judge because of his actions and the pressures he put on you. I told them that every child wanted to please their father, it didn't matter how old you got or if your parents were dead! You always kept asking if they were proud! I told them that you knew where you had gone wrong, that you didn't murder Dumbeldor because you weren't a killer, and I told them I knew this because I had been there hiding under the invisible cloak!" The stranger had spoken in a monotone tone and it had kind of felt as if he was repressing a lot of feelings that came with this memory! And God dammit! Draco wanted to thing that this person just kept on lying! But he realised that this truly was Harry fucking Potter!  
Because the press had not known all the details that the person in front of him had just told him about his own trail. He knew that Potter could have told somebody that told somebody, but for some reason Draco got the feeling that Potter didn't talk that much about how he had defended Draco and his mother! But it was just so unreal! Draco hadn't thought about Potter since the end of the war! He hadn't seen any reason for it!  
"You gotta be kidding me? Are you really Potter?" Draco asked and he had an eyebrow raised in question. Was he seriously having this conversation with Potter! Out of all people he wasn't mentally prepared to meet from his past, this was definitely one of them! The stranger, no Potter looked up at him and shook his head a bit.  
"It's me, and you, and we are seriously meeting in a random muggle bar, no matter how unreal this situation is" Potter spoke and Draco couldn't help but frown, there was no animosity in his words, this didn't seem like his mortal enemy from the past! If nothing else, this just seemed like a tired guy that had too much on his plate.  
"You've changed a lot, had this been you from eleven years ago you would have jumped at my throat and accused me of stalking you or something ridiculous like that" Draco was watching and he couldn't see any sign that the man before him was about to start a brawl or just throw one of his famous tantrums! It didn't happen through! He saw no signs other than a bit of amusement in Potters eyes. He didn't seem hostile at all but rather as if he was glad to see Draco, but that couldn't be it right? The last time the really were this close Potter had nearly killed him! Could eleven years really do that much? Draco himself didn't seem to be able to forget, so he stayed tense and on edge! Potter seemed to thing for a while before he answered.  
"I've spent eleven years away from every wizard I once knew. I haven't even talked to Ron or Hermione. And yes, I have changed and thank God for that! I was a real piece of work when I was younger." Draco was kind of thrown of balance a bit! In his world the golden trio would always stay together even if one of them turned out to be a serial killer the other two would stand up and protect that person! So it came as quite a chock to hear that Potter didn't have any contact with them anymore! Even more choking was the fact that Potter wasn't just jumping on him and telling Draco how bad he had behaved but rather he spoke of his own faults! Draco had never heard the Gryffindor golden boy admit that he had any faults whatsoever!  
"Wow, that must have taken a lot out of you to admit that! Does the boy who lived need a glass of water?" Draco knew that he was being nasty, but it was a his defence! Potter made him unsure about a lot of things and this, when he acted like Draco was anyone and they didn't have a horrible past! He could see Potter bite his teeth together and he closed his hands into fists. That actually reassured Draco because this was a normal reaction! This was what usually happened when he and Potter were talking!  
"Don't call me that" Potter bit out through gritted teeth "I'm not going around throwing out your previous identity, Can you please refrain from using mine." Once again Draco was thrown a bit of balance! He hadn't expected this! He had been sure that Potter would snarl back and call him a deatheater, after all, that was what he had been during the war. He bore the mark to show for it. But Potter hadn't taken up the bait, he had been mad that Draco had called him the boy who lived but he hadn't reverted back to a teenager and started throwing old accusations around. Yet another thing that made Draco frown, why didn't Potter react the way he expected him too? He looked back at Potter and saw him struggle. It was clear that Potter didn't like the name of a hero or the boy who lived. But what made Draco so confused was how he closed his eyes and took a deep breath and when he looked back up at Draco he seemed to have collected himself and his shoulders relaxed a bit.  
"It's been eleven years, do you think that we maybe could put the past and our childish ways behind us? Maybe you could just sit down and talk with me about your life. I'm tired of fighting with you and pretending that I hate you" Potter spoke words that didn't make any sense to Draco! He knew that Potter had hated him from that first day on the train! Had these eleven years messed with Potter's memories or what?  
"Are you draft or what? You rejected me first year and after that you did your best to make my life hell! Of course you hated me and of course I am having a hard time believing that you had an amazing change of heart!" Draco didn't like this one bit! Why was Potter saying untrue things like this and pretending that he cared!? Potter sighed a bit and raised his hands in the air.  
"I know, I was a jerk and I'm sorry! I'm sorry that I tortured you and I'm sorry for treating you like shit" Potter spoke words that seemed to be so wrong coming out of his mouth! Because Draco knew that Potter wasn't the only one that had treated the other one badly!  
"I know that all this is a lot to take in, but it's true! I was intrigued by you! You were a bit stuck up, but you knew so much about a world that I was clueless in! I wanted to talk with you and get to know you! So when I got to the train I looked for you! But Ron had already helped me and it was obvious that he was expecting me to sit with him! I was pretty naive seeing as it was my first time in the wizarding world, so I though all of us could be friends! But then you insulted the second person that was kind to me, and I felt obligated to defend him! It wasn't until much later that I realised that Ron had insulted you first by laughing at your name, and when I realised this then I was already to caught up by the politics and school dynamic at Hogwarts. I was a Gryffindor so I had to hate everything Slytherin, no matter how little I didn't want too!" Potter grew quiet and Draco could do nothing but stare! Could this really be true!? Could Potter have actually wanted a friendship with him since such young age but been stopped by the hoses and their politics! Draco pulled his hand through his long blond hair and shook his head!  
"You know that this sounds crazy right and the fact that we tried to kill or hurt each other more than once still remains" their childhood rivalry had been brutal and it was hard for Draco to think that Potter had just put everything behind him!  
"Don't you just wish to be a normal guy om the street, isn't that why you are here?" Potter asked him and Draco didn't at all like the fact that Potter knew so much about him.  
"At least that's what I want. I want to put my past behind me and forget all about houses and how you are supposed to treat the all evil one! I just want to be a normal person and I want to catch up with a guy from my childhood, is that so weird?" Draco just raised an eyebrow as Potter spoke! Yes it was weird that the person that Potter wanted to catch up with was Draco! Why not Ron or Hermione if he hadn't seen them since the end of the war? He was just about to ask that when a woman came and threw her arms around Potter.  
"Come one Cyro! We need you! Hawk is like the dullest dance company in the universe!" She more or less screamed it in Potter's ear and Draco made a face! It was pretty clear that this woman was drunk!  
"Can't you see I'm in the middle of a conversation?" Potter answered the woman and made a gesture to Draco that was sitting opposite him!  
"This is a bar not a dating services, give him your number and tell him to call you when you are not out with your friends!" Potter's ears turned red at her words, probably because the woman had no idea the history they shared though it seemed as if Harry was interested in guys, that was an interesting piece of information. Potter sighed and started writing something down on a napkin.  
"I'm sorry about Mitzi, she gets a bit... energetic when she gets drunk, I need to go and entertain her and the rest of my friends so that they don't think I have abandoned them. But here is my number. If you do want to talk and maybe just get to know the grown up and mature version of me, then let me know and we can meet and talk somewhere. I would really like that" Potter gave him the napkin and there was a phone number on it. Draco stared at the numbers and then back up at Potter. Was he really serious, did he actually want to do this?  
"What makes you think I've got a phone?" The words just slipped out without Draco even thinking about it. Potter had already stood up and was leaving with that drunk woman! He turned back and gave of something that was a mix between a grin and a smile,  
"Because you always did have the nicest toys" He answered with a cocky wink of the eye he turned away and left to dance with his friends! Draco just stood there with the napkin in his hand and staring after his childhood enemy!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading it all! I'll update soonish!


End file.
